|
|
|
|
 |
|
Recovering From The Online Poker Satellites
|
Author: Marc Weinberg
Today's column contains one Counting Crows reference (any more would be too maudlin), one retraction (odds and outs have finally been explained to me by a NUMBER of gentle readers), and several observations about playing online satellites in order to qualify for major poker tournaments.
I begin with the retraction just to get that out of the way. Rather ignorantly on my part, I made an incorrect assumption yesterday when I said that the % for hitting your drawing hand would decrease if you took into account all the cards that had already been dealt out in a full-handed game. But of course the % would not go down in most cases because there are now fewer cards in the deck as well! Thanks to Matt for being the first of many to point out to me in an email. But props to everyone who wrote in - I'd love to say it was just a TEST to make sure that you're concentrating on the column, but alas I really made that egregious mathematical error. So, even though there might only be 5 cards of your suit left in the deck following a flop that comes with 2 of your suited cards in a full game, there are also only 28 cards left, so you're still 3:1 to hit that flush.
I guess that the point I was trying to make was that there are going to be a number of hands where your chances of winning are less than you might imagine, particularly when you are not drawing to the nut hand, or when your drawing hand could still be overtaken (you hit a flush on the turn, only for the board to pair on the river - that kind of thing). There is a phrase in Las Vegas card rooms that is the last word on this subject, I promise: "Those who chase flushes go home on buses."
Now for a review of online satellites for major tournaments. First of all, having mingled with the poker stars this past week while winning a super-satellite tournament at the Bellagio (please see my blog on this site for more of my own posturing and bluster), I would like to inform everyone that all these top pros lurk around online, and most of them like to play in these dinky satellite tournaments!
So, the next time you're playing in a $200 Caribbean Sun Classic Satellite, or a $100 Aussie Millions Satellite, you'd do well to consider that not all the opponents are pimply sophomores taking a break from their Engineering classes (although a lot of them undoubtedly are of this type). Some of the players are top poker pros who would prefer to keep their $10k sponsorship money and win a seat for $100 instead. Also, you would be surprised to learn how many world series of poker winners do not have lucrative endorsement deals, which means if they want to go and play poker in Aruba they need to cough up $12,500 just like the rest of us. So, the incentives to play online satellites are there for everyone.
I played in two of these satellites this weekend, and burst in "the bubble" both times. There is no worse feeling than falling short in a poker tournament. I'd far rather be sent home (heck, I already am home when I start, but you know what I mean) within the first 10 minutes on a bad beat than have to play hard for three hours only to run into the bad beat once I've missed another week of NFL action. Why did I bother getting that NFL package when Sunday afternoon on the west coast is always poker tournament time, at least at my house.
Related Poker Articles And News Items:
> How To Win At Limit Poker - Some Thoughts
> The Difficulty Of Measuring Success As An Online Poker Player
> Online Tournament Poker Meltdown
> How To Win Online Poker Tournaments
> Poker Odds And Assessing Your Outs
> Harrington On Hold'em Rules!
> Guaranteed Poker Tournaments - Providing An Edge
> The Fallacy Of Saying You Are Pot Committed
|
|
 |
| |
|
|
|
Hot Poker Promotions
|
Online Poker Rooms Guide
|
|
|
|
Join Our Newsletter
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
